Captain
by tiramisuloverlena
Summary: Mastering Petal dance and being a Captain are Sephiria's childhood dreams. If souls reincarnated after death, what kind of life did Sephiria live before this one. Was she also a swordswoman whose movements cast illusions? Or perhaps something else?


Captain

Sephiria's favorite technique isn't mekai, despite it being her strongest trump card. Her most beloved technique is "petal dance", a technique that allows her to move so fast and silently that her movement casts illusions of herself while she attacks the enemy, _like a phantom_, she thinks. Perhaps she should call it "Phantom Dance", _but that is not a very elegant name_.

She is a Buddhist. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, that a person's soul simply is reborn without and previous memories after they die. She often wondered what kind of life she had before being reborn into this life. Was she a sword master as well? Could she cast illusions with her movements? How did she die?

They say people bring their deepest desires somehow into the next life. They can never _**remember**_those desires and wishes, but the memories are there, lurking in their unconsciousness, and manifesting in surprising ways.

Perhaps this is why Sephiria loves moving like a phantom and truly enjoys being the commander of the chromos numbers. She loves her blond wavy hair and blue eyes; she thinks she is fairly pretty, but wonders if she still would look beautiful is her pupils were silver. She'd never seen anyone with silver colored pupils before, but for some reason, she just wonders.

Then one day, she did see a person with silver eyes. It happened while she was recovering from her battle with creed. For a while, she fell asleep on the floor as Creed and Train battled outside. In her dream she saw a woman with blond hair and silver eyes. That woman held a large sword, which Sephiria recognized as a Claymore blade. Then suddenly, a monster appeared and the woman drew her blade, she moved so quickly that her imaged blurred and seemed to cast illusions…_like a phantom_, observed Sephiria. The woman cut down the monster with ease, _she is stronger than me_, sephiria noted, _but I believe I can match her speed_. Suddenly, the woman turned around to face her, looking very surprised and confused.

Sephiria looked at her curiously. _She can see me? Am I not dreaming?, _thought Sephiria.

"Tabitha" the woman spoke, addressing Sephiria "why are you dressed like this?"

Sephiria looked at her chronos uniform, then at the woman. "Are you speaking to me?" she politely inquired.

The woman took a step back upon hearing this and cautiously asked, "You're not Tabitha? Then who are you?"

"My name is Sephiria Arks, please forgive me for interrupting whatever you were doing, but I honestly do not know why I am here, our where "here" is. " Sephiria replied calmly. Although her body suffered severe injuries from her battle with Creed, the proud captain of the chronos numbers easily gathered her calm composure in the presence of such a powerful warrior. _I can feel my wounds regenerating thanks to the surgery I underwent as a child to enhance by healing abilities. If this person decides to attack me, I may still have enough strength to block her attacks with my sword, and then use my speed to outrun her. _Sephiria thought.

However, just as the woman opened her mouth and was about to say something, the world faded to black and Sephiria was jolted awake by the sound of Train's railgun clashing into Creeds blade.

The fight was finally over.

_It was just a dream_, thought Sephiria, _for a second I thought I'd seen that woman before…maybe I'd dreamed about her before…because I've never met anyone with silver eyes in my life! She looked so skilled and strong…probably stronger than me…but then again, I underestimated my opponent this time too….and overestimated my own strength…I was so sure I could defeat creed_

_Tabitha. Where have I heard that name before? It has a familiar ring to it. Why did that woman call be Tabitha? Who was that woman anyway?_

Sephiria pondered these questions for a while, but decided to push them to the back of her mind as she made her way outside to see the result of the Black Cat's battle, and confirm the safety of the other numbers.

After all, she was their captain

Miria woke up alone in a spare room in the church in the city of Rabona, where Galatea was allowing her and Tabitha to stay while Clare and the others fought the gigantic awakened being that was the result of a merge between Luciela and her sister Alicia. _Speaking of Tabitha_, thought Miria, _that was such a strange dream. That woman from my dream…Sephiria Arks…I think was the name she told me, her appearance matched Tabitha's exactly! However, now that I'm thinking about it…she did feel different from Tabitha aside from her strange clothes and her lack of Youki. She seemed very strong and confident despite her apparent injuries. She had certain regality to her…kind of like Galatea... _

The sound of the door being opened pulled Miria briefly away from her thoughts as Tabitha emerged from the door… dressed in the way she ordinarily dressed, to Miria's relief.

"You're finally awake! You must have been tired, it is almost noon now." Said Tabitha.

Miria smiled. This was Tabitha. She decided to forget about that strange dream since there were other far more urgent matters to be attended to. She needed to know what happened to Clare and the others, and plan an attack the Organization accordingly…if Helen, Devene, and Clare are not in the condition to fight the Organization's warriors, then she would just have to take advantage of the chaos caused by Priscilla and that gigantic monster and charge into the organization on her own.

She cannot take Tabitha with her, she decided. Although Tabitha adored and admired her, and wished to be everything she was, Tabitha didn't want to kill humans. Miria knew that despite that fact that she may die from trying to attack the organization alone, she had to do it for her comrades' sake, for her deceased friend Hilda's sake, and for her own sake.

With that unfailing resolution, the phantom charged alone into the east.

It hurt like hell. Every fiber in her body protested violently as Sephiria walked towards the bridge were the victorious Train stood over the defeated Creed. She knew that Train intended to spare Creed's life in order to allow Creed to find redemption. She had no power to prevent it, since she had failed to stop creed.

On the helicopter ride back to head quarters, she was informed of Belze and Mason's safety. They had succeeded in destroying all the apostle's bases.

"How are you feeling Sephinee?" asked Jenos.

"I'm fine." She replied

The numbers rode the rest of the helicopter ride in silence. Then, as they were about to arrive, Sephiria addressed her comrades: "I'm sorry I miscalculated Creed's power. I nearly put everyone in unnecessary danger. I failed to do my job as your captain. And I apologize here to each one of you "

"you don't need to apologize." Said Jenos. "I speak here for all of us, you didn't fail Sephiria, you tried your best to complete our mission and protect our lives…that's why you challenged Creed alone…right? You didn't want us to lose our lives fighting Creed. I'm glad you're alive Sephiria. We're all glad to have you as our Captain…you care about the safety of each number…compassion…that is something Creed never had for his comrades…you are stronger than Creed, both in skill and in spirit…that is what's important to us…no one could have guessed that he had obtained immortality. "

Sephiria stared at jenos' grinning face, then looked around to see everyone's agreeing smile, and she smiled gently.

"Thank you" she said to her comrades, "lets continue to fight together for what we believe in."

_Perhaps, in my previous life_, Sephiria thought as her comrades beamed at her, _my deepest desire was to be a good leader..._

The warriors stood facing the organization's men, their swords drawn. The men couldn't believe their eyes, for leading the rebels, was a woman they believed to be dead. Unanimously, the Claymore warriors had chosen Miria as their captain.

Then, Captain Phantom Miria charged at the organization once again, this time, with her new comrades behind her.

As Tabitha lead the others towards the organization's head quarters, her thoughts trailed back to Miria. Miria was everything she ever wanted to be: a mightly warrior who moves like a phantom, a near-perfect captain with both tactical skill and affection for all her allies. Her deepest desire was to be like Miria, she made it a life goal to follow Miria wherever she may take her.

_Ever since I learned of the existence of the Chronos Numbers from my trainer, I knew I wanted to be No. 1, the captain of all the other numbers. I didn't know why, but I made it a goal and trained harder ever since. It was the same with learning petal dance. I took an instant liking of that technique when my sword master demonstrated it to me. That time, I felt an enormous desire to learn to move in complete silence and cast illusions with my speed. I'm a rational person, actually, I admit that I am quite manipulative and calculating…which is why I could never figure out just why I had such a strong affinity for petal dance or the position of No. 1. _

_If the Buddhist teachings were correct, then perhaps, they reflect my past life's deepest desire, carried into this life. Although I have no idea what my former life and former self was like, I'm sure she would have been pleased if she only knew that I, her reincarnation, have both mastered the petal dance and become a strong captain. _

_If I could meet myself from my past life, I want to ask her, "Was I able to become the person you wanted to be? Was I able to fulfill your unfulfilled wishes?"_


End file.
